Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I have a pretty good printer that would do a good job at printing digital pics, but I"m just tryingt o decide if it's worth it to buy the paper and ink cartridge when Wal-Mart does it. I'm just trying to decide what to do and I'm stuck!!
I used to go to the photo shop but now I print my own. That said, I don't do a lot of pictures. If you do a ton, it might be easier to get them done somewhere else.
__________________ My Gallery Team Jasper! "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" Mt. 6:21
I print mine myself for the simply fact that it is easy. Back in the days of film, I would often hoard rolls of film for months waiting to take it to Walgreens or mail them off in the pre-piad envelopes to Snapfish. Once I was so bad that when I got my pictures back, I had pics from 2 different Christmases!
Nope, I also use winkflash. They are really quick. My friends use smugmug and since they are in Georgia, I'm still waiting from last weekend for pictures I ordered. Winkflash for me comes in two days. I have also used costco as well. It is so much easier. I do have a great photo printer and will print if I need something now.
I was told the self prints only last 10 years before fading, not sure if that is true?
I think with the price of ink cartridges it way cheaper to have them printed elsewhere...I have used Walmart & right now kodak.com has 10 cents prints. I a thrifty person & not so much into instant gratification, so I wait for the prints & save the $.
I usually have them printed at Sam's (for everyday pictures) or Best Buy for special ones. But, I always keep paper and photo ink on hand, just in case I am scrapbooking and "need" one printed, or if it's too late to get them printed elsewhere, or if I just have a few to print. I also print them at home for special occasions like when my daughter went to prom - i went and took tons of group and individial photos before prom. When all the kids came here afterwards, I was able to give each an envelope with photos...
I bought a stand alone HP photo printer and all the paper and inks, well, after all is said and done, it's cheaper to use Snapfish or one of the others unless you need a *right now* photo!
__________________ Karen
...My life is like a stroll on the beach...As near to the edge as I can go...Thoreau...
If you can get a BOGO package of 100 sheets of 4"x6" high quality photo paper for about $13 and don't mind refilling your own empty cartridges with your own ink, you can make prints for under 10 cents each. Personally, I like doing it myself. But, with all the specials out there, I don't think it's worth it for most people.
I don't print my own pics at home. It has been my experience that these are not the best quality and the ink fades really fast. One post said that they are supposed to last up to 10 years; well, that very well may be if they are kept in an album or scrapbook. Often, I like to display some of those really fun candid shots and they fade way too fast!
To me it is well worth paying to have Sam's, Wal-Mart or Kodak do the printing!
__________________ Julia Gluten free on 9/15/2008. I am a Celiac. 1 in 133 Americans is a Celiac and 97% of those who have Celiac Disease are still undiagnosed. Are you one?
I print some pics for projects on my printer at home, but I make sure I use the ink and paper designed for my printer otherwise the quality isn't as good. If I am doing something more involved than a small photo wallet or photo cube, I will order them from Costco.com as it is cheaper over all than using my inks and paper.
If I scrapbooked, I would order them all from Costco.com (can't beat the free shipping!).
I use www.clarkcolor.com. I just ordered 85 prints today and they were only .08 cents a piece. Also, they are really quick and great quality. I sometimes do Snapfish, too. I print mine out by month and I scrapbook in chronological order so I have my prints ready the month before. I hope that made sense. I thought about getting one at home but when I figured out the cost it was cheaper to pay to have them printed.
I print my own unless I'm looking to have one blown up and framed. I don't use photo paper, either. I have a color printer so the ink is there already. I often print on plain ole GP cardstock. If I want a glossy finish (which often I don't care for) I use glossy CS. It works just great for me.
I prefer to use COSTCO or Walmart. It takes forever for the photos to print out at the highest quality (even on my very nice printer), and I can just as well order them online and just go pick them up...and I can prepay them as well.
I print my own on my HP Photosmart 3210 and haven't had any problems. Of course, the way I look at is I also have them backed on disk so if they fade I can always reprint!
I print most of mine also. I live 50 miles from town, no Costco. I like that I get to choose exactly what and how to print. I can crop or "fix" the photo to my satisfaction. I don't print everything I take, but I do have them on CD and also on a website so I'm covered. It took me two years to take in the film from my 35mm Minolta, I just had them make me a CD and brought it home and printed only 3 off that roll. I have an old HP PHOTOSMART and it really does a super job.
__________________ Becki aka Queenabella MY GALLERY
MY BLOG One of Kota's Kids Too Blessed to be Stressed
I prefer to print my own at home (Epson Picturemate Deluxe and HP all-in-one), as I do a lot of cropping and rarely print in the standard sizes (4x6, 5x7, etc).
I print my own. Primarily for convenience, sometimes I crop or I change the colors to b/w. It worked out to be 1 cent cheaper than Walmart. The only time I went in a Walmart was to print pictures. I don't mind not going there.
I usually always go somewhere and have them printed like Walmart or Ritz camera. But I am printing pictures as I type this because I needed wedding pics from my best friend's parents wedding for their anniversary and they cant be printed anywhere else. Even though the photographer had passed away a long time ago.
I print them when I absolutely need them. With living overseas, I order my prints through KodakGallery. I made an order a week and a half ago and haven't received them yet (for making two scrapbooks for my mom and MIL's respective birthdays) so I'm printing anything as I need it. I can't wait to get back to the States and download them onto WalMart, Sams, or another respective store and be able to go pick them up in an hour...I wish I had that here!!!
__________________ Jennifer My Blog Proud Mommy to Cameron 10/2008 and Connor 6/2014
I have a HP printer. I love printing my own. I can decide the size and custom it to each photo. I can have it right now! I can use different quality papers depending on the function. I love the convenience and would be pretty sad if it went curplewy.
I do a mix. If I have the where-with-all to plan ahead what I'm scrapping, I'll upload and order pics from scrapbookpictures.com. They have a flat rate for shipping, a beautiful matte finish (don't like glossy), and they look professional.
If it's like usual and I'm running around at the last minute trying to figure out what I'm scrapping, I just print them out.
I sometimes print my own and sometimes get them printed elsewhere. I like the convenience of being able to print a quick picture when I need to, but I like the quality of real photos better. I have an Epson with DuraBrite ink, and it's rated at about the same as regular photos (+/- 70 years).
I enjoy printing my own because I get to tweat them before hand, choose the size, etc. I have never paid for photo printing paper, so that is a factor too, I only pay for ink. However, I know Walgreens has specials that are pretty hard to beat if you don't want to mess with it yourself. That's where my parents go.
We have a newish (3 years old) large Shoppers Drug Mart nearby and they do a beautiful job printing the pictures and he will usually do it in a half hour if he isn't too rushed.
It is MUCH cheaper than getting the photo paper and the color toner for the printer and he doesn't get them jambed into the printer like I can either.
Shoppers Drug Mart is in most provinces in Canada. They have 1000 stores now but not all have the lovely machines and sell food at good prices as well so I go there often.
i print some on my hp photosmart but its cheaper to get them through www.photoworks.com out of seattle and they store all my uploaded photos on their site. and at the end of the year I can order a cd with all that years photos on it for $20. good deal I say
Usuaully I print my own from my digital camera. To 'compete' with commercial printing prices, I buy my printer cartridges when they are on sale, or if not, the double cartridge packages as you save 15% (at Offfice Max). To save on paper I buy the HP Premium paper when Office Max has buy 1 / get 1 free. I think the most important thing I have learned about printing my own pictures is to buy the right paper for your printer. I tried Kodak, which is highly recommened, but for my HP printer, it did not work as well as the HP paper. I like to print my own as I can crop them the way I like. I found that if I do any resizing to my photos, the self-serve photo machines have trouble & don't print the picture.
It really isn't any more convenient to print my own than to upload them for printing. Not to long ago I figured up the cost per picture for me to print them at home & the cost per print to have them done and it is actually much cheaper to get them done.
__________________ Suzanne "Wear fabulous underwear even if you are the only person that is going to see it"
Do you print your own pics?
Shoppers Drug Mart
